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What video card should my friend get for his new (old) system?

I

Inimical

Member
A friend of mine is going to be receiving a hand-me-down system in a week or two, and he's asked me for advice on what sort of video card to buy. The system has an athlon 64 3200+ and a gig of RAM, and it will need an AGP video card. I just want to make sure he doesn't spend too much money on a card that his system won't be able to fully utilize. What should he buy?
 
What will your friend do with it? Hardcore gaming, casual gaming, or just office apps?

Does it already have some kind of video card, however weak?

Is a used card OK? (Lots of deals in FS/FT forum here)
 
I think it would probably be most accurate to say he's a casual gamer. He'd like to play some of the newer games, but definitely doesn't need to run them at 1600x1200 with 4x AA.

The system doesn't have a video card with it at all, but I believe he could get his hands on a 7600GS for very cheap, though I think he would prefer getting something new.
 
7600GT would be about right for that price range.

Gigabyte makes some pretty sweet passively cooled cards that I can recommend.
 
Online, he can do far better than merely a 7600 GT for $175 USD, delivered here in the states. He can get one of those for more like $140, and probably a lot less with some shopping around. However, a 7600 GT is a very nice card, and $130-140 for AGP is reasonably good. His CPU will handle more GPU than that, if he wants to play some of the more demanding games. Let's look at what Newegg is proud of today?

X1950 GT card by Sapphire for $155 looks very good! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102093
 
So you're saying that the x1950GT would not be bottlenecked by the CPU, and would be the best card to maximize the systems performance?
 
Would the X1950GT be roughly the equivalent of a 7800GS? Because I have a 7800GS and a A64 3200 and I'm definetly not CPU limited in games like Oblivion and FEAR. The GPU gets its hands full long before the CPU becomes a problem even at 1280x1024.
 
AFAIK, the Pro is marginally faster .. remembering the benches - if memory serves me - the Pro was +1-2 FPS in a lot of games over the GT
 
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